2.
British Library Labs is about…
Encouraging scholars and
developers to do research
and development with and
across British Library digital
collections and data
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
2

3.
What activities does Labs do?
• Encourage researchers / developers to do interesting things with BL
digital content (+other) with and across collections (a data driven
approach)
• Competitions and events (hack events)
• Creating an environment where scholars / developers can work
intensively with Library’s digital collections (winners will be resident)
• Work with your ideas
• Help develop tools and services to support digital scholarship
• Case studies for the library and research communities
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
3

8.
Ideas from first competition
• Text mining tool in the reading rooms
• Curatorial…repackaging metadata for teaching and
learning in a CMS e.g. Drupal
• Visualising large collections of sound at a glance
(thumbnails)
• Using sheet music and OMR software
• Working to re-use a radio archive
• The winners are…
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
8

9.
Mixing the Library:
The Disc Jockey & the Digital Collection
Dan Norton’s prototype ‘mixing’ interface
Dan Norton completed a
PhD at the University of
Dundee and is an Artist in
Residence at Hangar, Centre
for Art and Research, Barcelona.
Annotation
His idea is to build a ‘mixing’ interface for
interacting with BL digital collections and
wider developed from the DJ's model of
interaction with information.
Preview ‘item’
‘Play back’ of ‘items’ (Blue)
and annotations (Yellow)
Selected ‘left’
channel ‘item’
Collection ‘stalks’ made of ‘items’. Each ‘item’ is a URL.
The order of the ‘items’ can be ‘shuffled’ and sent to the ‘left’ or ‘right’ channels
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
Selected ‘right’
channel ‘item’
9

10.
The Sample Generator
for Digitised Texts
1
Pieter Francois is a Postdoctoral
Researcher at the University of Oxford.
The ‘Sample Generator’ connects one
or more major catalogues or
collections of digitized texts through
metadata.
British Library Labs Sample Generator
From
Travel Routes
1888
To
1899
Account, Tour, Adventure, Visit. Journey, Expedition,
Excursion, Trip, Holiday, Guide, Plan, Route

Digitally available content only
Search terms

Synonyms
Distribution of items in catalogue
Sample Size
8
Generates a randomised unbiased sample
Generate
2
Generated sample URL (unique & citable after creation)
Terms used: ‘Travel Routes’ from ‘1888-1899’, sample size ‘8’.
Set created on ‘16/10/2013’ by ‘Pieter Francois’
Travel route extracted from
‘Work 1’ for further research
3
Work 1
Researcher carries out research on works in
the sample generated. Here it used for the basis
of generating travel routes as shown in 3.
Work
1
Work
2
Work
3
Work
4
Work
5
Work
6
Work
7
Work
8
In this example, the ‘Sample Generator’ searches across 1.8 million bibliographic
records from the 19th Century for items about ‘Travel Routes’ and where possible
(digitised items permitting) provides unbiased digital ‘samples’ for further research.
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
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11.
Next Competition
• Starts 11 November 2013 and ends around April 2014
• Submit idea, engage during this period to formulate a good
idea
• First prize £3000 and residency (expenses paid) and we will
work with you to make your shiny thing between May and
October 2014
• Work with us anyway and our content at Data / Hack
events:
• 12 Dec 2013, 13 January 2014, 12 February 2014, 10
March 2014
http://labs.bl.uk
#bl_labs
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